January 23 - Parish Council Meeting
Minutes of a Langtoft Parish Council Meeting held on Tuesday 23 January 2024 at 19:00 in the Village Hall
Present: Cllrs. Colin Gamble (Chair), Yvonne McCulloch, Steve Valentine, Julian Tatam & Beverley Farrington
In Attendance: District Councillor Vanessa Smith, 0 members of the public and Sarah Gresty Parish Clerk
Public Forum: As there were no public in attendance it was proposed by Cllr. Valentine and Seconded by Cllr. Tatam to commence the meeting, unanimously agreed by all.
Agenda
23/24-228 Chairman’s welcome. Cllr. Gamble opened the meeting by welcoming all present.
23/24-229 Apologies: There were none.
Other Apologies: were received from Cllrs. Rosemary Trollope-Bellew & Phil Dilks.
23/24-230 Disclosure of Pecuniary Interests: There were none.
23/24-231a
Minutes: of the Parish Council meeting dated on 28 November 2023 were presented as a true and accurate record of events. Proposed acceptance Cllr. Tatam, Seconded Cllr. McCulloch, Cllr. Valentine abstained due to being absent, the remaining unanimous in favour RESOLVED.
23/24-232
Items from previous minutes for information exchange
Action: Clerk would chase with Cllr. Dilks the meeting date with Dan Adam from Highways for the village
gates positioning. Cllr. Smith offered her help in chasing this on our behalf.
• Cllr. Valentine would meet with Chris Palmer to organise the speed indicator signs monitoring.
• Clerk to research permanent noticeboards for both parks due to the disappearance of the new signs recently installed at black bull green.
Deeping leisure centre funding request. It was noted that the Leisure centre had recently been awarded a £850k grant pending various criteria from SKDC.
23/24-233 Casual Vacancies. None had been received.
23/24-234 Reports from:
a)County and District Councillors
District Councillors Vanessa Smith’s report had been received and circulated prior to the meeting. A question was asked if SKDC supported Devolution. SKDC are not supportive of this for various reasons mainly due to the large geographically area of Lincolnshire and the possibility that funds would not be evenly spread to the south of the county. However, SKDC are not part of the decision making process. It was felt that a local voice is more beneficial.
b)Police Reports are received and circulated and made available on website/noticeboard upon receipt.
23/24-235 Finance & General Purposes :
a) Review of staff grading and pay. Proposal: To upgrade the clerks salary from SCP 8 to 15 with effect from 1st April to more closely reflect the appropriate grading for this role. Proposed: Cllr. Tatam, Seconded Cllr. Gamble unanimous in favour. RESOLVED.
Gardeners pay grade would be reviewed with job description. Action: to arrange a group meeting.
b) 2024/25 Budget and Precept. A full detailed review of the finances had taken place. It was noted that there was a projected deficit on the budget for 2023/24 reducing the reserves and the precept had not increased for 3 years.
Proposal: To raise the precept for 2024/25 to cover the net expenditure to £34,154, an increase of £12.13 per annum on a Band D household. Proposed Cllr. Gamble, Seconded Cllr. Valentine and unanimous in favour. RESOLVED.
Cllr. Valentine thanked Julian and the clerk for the work put into producing a simplified layout for the budget and precept.
c) Financial Report for the period 01 April 2023 to 31 December 2023 with bank statements were presented to the meeting
d) Resolve Payments as follows:
To Whom/Detail/£
236 S Gresty Oct Clerk Salary 545.78
237 N Bright Oct Gardener salary 375.06
238 N Bright oct expenses 60.39
239 S Valentine Penfield expenses 81.4
240 Play Inspection annual inspection EEP 90
241 Elderwood Treecare pollarding EEP Pond 1300
242 RBL Poppy Appeal donation 90
243 IONOS inv 203038689396 3
244 BDG Mowing inv 23/1451 351
245 A Deptford inv 14577 defib pads 231.54
246 S Gresty qtr 2 clerk expenses 207.68
247 John Eley Signs park and penfield signs 254.4
248 P Coles landmark inv 84869 EEP pond 35.57
249 St Michael's church xmas tree donation 10
250 St Michael's church room hire nov meeting 35
251 Branch Brothers invoices 62639 & 62805 124.15
252 DT Window cleaning bus stop inv 27364 60
253 S Gresty microsoft annual subscription 118.85
254 N Bright nov salary + backpay 652.53
255 S Gresty nov salary + backpay 825.48
256 ionos 203039168808 3
257 Branch Brothers inv 1062999/1063178 90.41
258 N Bright nov expenses 40.61
259 LALC inv 14146 training 24
260 FOLS donation opal project 200
261 G Hobbs Ukrainian welcome backs 100
262 Ligna Consultancy 3538 tree survey 630
263 Yvonne McCulloch events expenses xmas event 23.08
264 Unity Trust Bank bank charges 18
265 Shelley Signs inv26164 EEP signage 444
266 Graytones Printers inv 35423 xmas cards 60
267 John Eley Signs inv 8383 eep signage 60
268 S Gresty Dec clerk salary 534.28
269 N Bright Dec Gardeners salary 375.4
270 HMRC Qtr 3 Tax and NIC 872.11
271 IONOS Invoice 203039646557 3
272 Kevin Johnson Invoice 2841 360
273 N Bright Gardeners dec expenses 14.55
e) To Note Income
From Whome/£
274 Cemetery stone 45.00
275 Cemetery EROB 142 90.00
276 Cemetery GP EROB 143/144 180.00
277 Cemetery YC EROB 145 & 146 360.00
278 SKDC cleaning grant 463.32
279 Cemetery EROB 141 (LM) 360.00
280 Unity Trust Bank bank interest 177.40
Proposal: To resolve and adopt all the financial matters presented above. Proposed: Cllr. Gamble, Seconded Cllr. Valentine and unanimous in favour. RESOLVED.
23/24-281 Working Group current issues (standard agenda items):
a) Amenities :
i)Action list was updated.
Action: A meeting with the Gardener and the Amenities Group to be arranged to collectively look at outstanding items and repairs required.
Clerk to order a new padlock for the parish council container with spare keys.
ii)External contractors to maintain parks quotation was noted.
Action: Cllrs. McCulloch and Farrington to undertake a full inventory of the contents on the container.
b) Events : Walking the Footpaths evening 1st May – details to be confirmed.
c) Penfield Winter Walk Saturday 2nd March 10 – 12.
Open Day 8th June
The Committee are progressing grants for sign postings, information boards and a viewing platform.
d) Cemetery Tidy morning Saturday 16th March 10 am.
e) East End Pond
i)Resolution: To resolve and adopt the Risk assessment for East End Pond dated 12/12/2023 proposed Cllr. Valentine, Seconded Cllr. Gamble and unanimous in favour. RESOLVED.
f) Grapevine Magazine
Justin from Graytones printers had given a quote to edit, produce and print the grapevine magazine. Numbers of copies required were discussed.
Action: To print a questionnaire flyer to gauge how many residents would like to receive a printed copy
Cllr. Valentine to draft the flyer and circulate to Councillors before printing. Once results have been received c/f to next meeting.
23/24-282 Planning applications since the last meeting were noted.
i) PL/0129/22 S23/0103 to vary conditions of 2 of planning permission s19/0497 to amend the mineral extraction boundary and reduce the standoff distances from rectory farm, crown farm and the lodge To planning committee 6 November 2023 -approved at Planning meeting 08/11/2023
ii) pl/0130/22 s23/0102 to vary condition 3 of planning permission s19/0486 to amend the mineral extraction boundary and reduce the standoff distance from crown farm - To planning committee 6 November 2023 approved at Planning meeting 08/11/2023
iii) s23/1760 discharge of conditions 3 (arboriculture report) 4 (construction plan) and 7 sustainable building methods) in relation to s22/2459 -No comments submitted - Decision pending
iv) s23/1962 first floor rear and side extension and internal ground floor amendments The Planning Committee of Langtoft Parish Council have no objections this application. It is hoped that this applications recognises good design and is built to a high environmental and energy efficient standard in consideration of environmental challenges we face in the Climate Change Emergency. - Decision pending
v) PL/0083/23. 97 ha south eastern extension to the existing sand and gravel extraction operations with restoration to amenity/nature conservation No comments submitted – Decision Pending
vii) s23 0482 APPEAL Against failure to give Notice of Decision. Notice for information. Appeal date 9 Jan 2024
S23/2339 2 The Rides works to TPO trees. Response agreed: To object to this application as no arboriculture report had been done and on the applications it is stated that the tree is not diseased.
23/24-283 Communications – Cllr. Farrington
a) Parish Councillor surgery with village
b) Village community - consider merging the following:- newsletter, events, annual calendar, local news, volunteering needs, celebrations etc across all clubs/groups, council, school
c) Day time hub.
A full discussion took place on all the above forms of communication.
Action: Parish Meeting (date to be confirmed) would be widely advertised and cheese and wine provided as an incentive for residents to attend to come and meet the new Parish Council members. Cllr. Farrington to lead.
Clerk to research demographic of the village residents.
23/24-284 LPC Emergency Plan. Cllr. Gamble is working on this plan. Action: c/f to next meeting.
23/24-285 Correspondence was noted from the agenda.
23/24-286 To receive Items for Future Meetings
Policies Donations and Reserves
SKDC Langtoft Pavilion Playing fields
Date of future meetings: 2024: 5 Mar, 23 Apr, 28 May, 16 July, 12 Sept, 22 Oct, 26 Nov
Meeting closed at 21:11